Africa Adventure: Futbol, Camels,and more PT

Things are getting busy! As of now, i have two projects going with 1 or 2 projects within those projects. It's been great. My new project I have started is with the soccer academy. The Andrew Lovell Soccer Academy is comprised of 45 boys who were found by the Youth Outreach Mission. The Youth Outreach Mission's purpose is to gather street kids and try to give them a way to fulfill their dreams, and educate them on HIV/AIDS. The team's purpose was to integrate the street kids/orphans with regular kids who have parents. Only 20 out of the 45 boys go to school, while the rest struggle to pay for school fees. All but 5 of the boys have a roof to sleep under at night. Those 5 struggle every day to find food and shelter. The team practices every week without water, soccer cleats, a sufficient amount of soccer balls, and refreshments. My goal is to find those 5 boys a home to sleep in at night, and to get the team sponsored in order for them to provide an adequate amount of equipment for these boys. Maybe even after they get sponsored they could also get the money for school fees, so every one of those boys can have the chance to be educated. I am officially one of the coaches for the remaining part of the summer. It is so awesome. A little nerve racking when the other coaches tell to run the entire practice, but we're working at that. After our practice on wednesday i handed out a piece of paper to each of the kids and asked them to write down another hobby of theirs besides futbol, and to list some things that they would like to learn in practice and what they would like to learn in life in general. I told them that they make up this team as an individual. They are each special in their own way and I want to get to know each and every one of them personally. They need to feel loved and cared about, so hopefully i can accomplish that with them. I'm trying to find a sponsor for this team, so if anyone has any ideas please let me know! Last week during our practice i decided not to dress out because i felt like i had some parasite growing within me. So i just wore a dress and chacos. Well i should have remembered that it's not possible for me to be on a soccer field and not play.... So i was showing the goal keeper how he should come out and catch the ball and my dress flew up just about to my underwear. When i came back down to the ground i noticed that it felt a little br3eezier down there. All the coaches who were observing me jut kept saying " it's ok, sok" haha of course it's ok, I just gave them a free show.
Last weekend some of us traveled to some waterfalls and the capital. We got to see parliament, feed monkeys with our hands, and ride a camel. Those last two happened at the Entebbe Zoo. It was my first zoo and it was totally awesome. We got to see the lions actually playing with each other, which i heard is rare because they can sleep up to 22 hours in a day.
This week has been a bit emotional and has given me the opportunity to think about my life. I woke up yesterday and wrote this: What is in my heart and what I'd like to tell the people who will be interviewing me at PT school. What physical therapy means to me.
There are people who have chosen physical therapy because it is in the medical field, but only takes three years to graduate with your doctorate rather than seven years for med school. Or they choose the PT route because it's easier to deal with due to the lack of blood involved. Let me tell you, those reasons sound appealing to motivate someone to dedicate their lives to physical therapy; however, that is not my reason. My passion for physical therapy has guided my life in a direction that has brought me here today and changed my life in more ways than I ever could have imagined. Physical therapy has made me whole physically and spiritually. I have become a strong woman who is hard working, compassionate, and service oriented. Physical therapy healed me from a debilitating back injury, and has healed my heart when I've encountered heart wrenching stories and conditions with the patients that I have worked with. Physical therapy has given me hope. Hope for the future. Hope that a patient will walk again, hope that a young boy will throw a baseball again, and hope that my family will be taken care of when the time comes that their body is not as strong as it once was. Physical therapy is not an easy out for me when it comes down to choosing grad schools. Physical therapy is a life-style. And I will live my life dedicated to its cause. It has touched me personally, it has touched my loved ones, and I will make sure that it touches every human being I will encounter in this life-changing world of physical therapy.

Africa Adventure: The Bad Place, cat food for lunch, back programs

Hey Guys,
So i feel like every week just gets better and better. Last week was quite productive. I was able to present my first back program. I created this back program with the help of the physical therapist at the hospital. I realized that there is a huge back problem among the women here in Uganda because of their life-style. Everyone here is bent over all day long washing dishes, cooking, washing laundry, showering, lifting heavy cans of water or baby's. I also noticed that most of the nurses were coming to the physical therapist to get their back treated because of their long shifts at the hospital. We made posters to present and explain. One poster consisted of a list of some of the causes of back pain such as improper lifting, or daily activities they perform. The next poster listed ways to correct and improve their life-style in order to protect their back, and the last two had exercises to strengthen their core and back. Our first program was presented to the Musana womens group who are mostly HIV postive, single, and very poor. They make jewelry and sell it over the internet as their main source of income. It was a great success. They are all very excited to see us again this week and to continue working to strengthen their backs. Last thursday we presented the back program to 26 nurses at the hospital! i couldn't believe how many people showed up. It was quite intimidating being in front of so many educated women and telling them what to fix in their life. However, they were very excited and interested in what we had to say. It was a hit! I can't wait to start expanding the back program all over the villages here. Friday i went out to Naziga village again. When we got there at 12:30 in the afternoon, we were introduced to 25 patients who had been waiting there since 7 am for treatment for their backs. So we got started right away. Most of our patients had returned for therapy so it actually felt like we were making progress. Some of them demonstrated how they have been sitting up properly in bed, and how they lift things now. Even with the huge communication barrier, it feels like I'm actually getting to them. It finally feels like I'm making a difference in these people's lives : ) For lunch that day we were served rice with a lovely sauce that had little silver fishes all mixed in it. It honestly tasted like barfed up cat food. Not that I've had that before, but I'm pretty positive i know what it would taste like now.
Saturday we woke up bright and early to raft the nile. Yes, I have rafted the nile. Freakin awesome, I know. The route we took was a class 5. For those of you who are not familiar with white water rafting, a class 5 is the highest class most people raft in their lives. The levels go from 1 to 6. However, my guide who has been doing this for 10 years has never done a 6 before. Only crazy professionals attempt 6's. It was so amazing. we went through 7 rapids with a few water falls in between. Because the water was so high that day our guides were a little thrown off by the change in the rapids. We actually got stuck on a huge rock on the edge of this waterfall called "overtime." For a good 5 minutes we had to bounce and try to rock ourselves down this water fall. Somehow we didn't end up flipping on that one. The very last rapid was called "The Bad Place," (which is depicted in the picture) dun dun dun. Our guide reassured us about two minutes before we entered the rapid that he had only done it twice and no one ever makes it without flipping. So we charged forward and as soon as our guide screamed "Get the hell down!!!" i just remember the raft going straight up in the air and feeling bodies fall on top of me. then i was pushed way down into the dark nile abyss. when i opened my eyes i was under the water looking up at a bit of faint light. So i frantically swam hoping i was swimming to the surface. just as i was about to gasp for air i reached the surface. then i got pummeled by another wave and got pushed down again. Luckily i made it down the river alive. A kayaker came to my rescue and i was solid. In fact, everyone in our group made it out alive; only a few cuts and bruises later. I would totally do it again. It was one of the coolest most exciting adventure i have been on thus far. Later that evening a few of us went to the local pub for dinner and to watch the world cup game: USA vs England!! it was awesome. I was in the midst of people from all over the world watching the game and having a great time.
This week I'll be helping to coach the boys soccer team here. They are all street kids that have been given the opportunity to be on this team and find an outlet for their hard lives. I hope things are beautiful and happy back in the states. Until next time...

Africa Adeventure; Sipi Falls, surgeries, and a lot of "that's Africa for you"

Hey everyone!!
I can't believe how much i'm falling in love with this place. This weekend 8 of us girls went to the most beautiful place in the world called Sipi Falls. It felt like we had died and gone to heaven. It all started with the adventure of actually getting there. When is there not a funny story when you're taking public transportation? So our taxi driver told us to get out of the vehicle and "foot" because we were crossing some bridge. It wasn't even a bridge.... We had already paid part of our fee b/c he needed gas money so i told him that we had already paid. he said that he would find us at the end of the "bridge." so 8 really white females trekked along with a ton of other africans on this "bridge" in the middle of nowhere. i really had to go to the bathroom so i decided to go along side of the road like everyone else here does. as soon as i got behind the blanket my friend was holding up, a bunch of africans huddled over by us with their corn and fruit and stared blankly at me with their heads cocked. it was really funny, but definitely enough motivation for me to wait to go to the restroom. we found our taxi driver and hopped back into the taxi on our way to sipi. this little village was no where near touristy as we were told. it was the quitest place i have ever been. once we finally got our lodging settled (it took a few hours because our original site was flooded with rain water) we were able to start our adventure. our campsite was on the edge of the most awesome cliff. our tour guide (this guy named fred who decided he had nothing better to do than take us all around his village) took us on a two and a half hour hike to three different water falls. let me add that our hike started after it poured rain for about 2 hours. so we were in mudd up to our ankles for the entire hike. of course i was the only one to fall on my face 3 times. haha. it was really cute, because we had a dog named captain who folllowed us on our hike the whole time, and even back to our campsite to put us to bed. we made dinner reservations at this resaurant on the side of the cliff that had the most breath taking view. we ate our four course meal while watching the african sunset. amazing. our meal started with onion soup with actual soft bread! then we had a vegetable frita (a doughy pancake thing), then came the main course which consisted of baked talapia fish and rice, then our meal was finished with a lemon pancake. it definitely wasn't american food, but it was a nice change. when we got back to our campsite we had a bonfire with the african guys who ran the site. they were our age, so it as fun to get to know them. They wanted us to sing to them and tell them stories. so we sang "a child's prayer" and i soloed "Pop" by N'SYNC. it was great. one of the guys sang us a love song that he wrote for a girl. i only remember the words "my little sexy butterfly." then we told scary stories. i contributed the blair witch story that i think i totally botched. we woke up the next day and went repelling of of a 300 foot waterfall!!!! totally awesome. it was nothing like climbing any of the rock walls i've climbed in utah. such an adrenaline rush! I will admit i might have shed a tear when we had to leave sipi. a piece of my heart will always be in sipi.
Yesterday was pretty eventful. We went to work with the physiotherapist at the hopital. The first patient i helped work on was this little 5 year old girl who had burns all over her hands. About a week ago she was staying with her aunt and she had eaten some food that she wasn't supposed to. So her aunt stuck her hands in a pot of boiling water. This little girl was so brave. I had to flex and extend her fingers in order to prevent her from getting any contractures. It was so tragic and extremely emotional. After we left the physiotherapy room, we went over to the "main theater" (the surgery room) to watch a cesarian section. Little did we know that this 19 year old young woman was giving birth to a still born. It was so emotional. It was hard to console her before the surgery. I just reassured her i would be there the whole time. It wasn't my ideal situatuation i would have liked to be in for my first surgery, but that's africa. It was a very interesting surgery. Cadavers are so different. no blood.... The young woman wasn't even allowed to see her baby. They took it away immediately to prepare it for burial. And this was still not the end of my emotionally draining day. We went around to the disabled people's homes in the village. The first lady we met had been stricken with polio when she was only 6 years old. She could only crawl on her hands and knees. She was amzing though. She has four children and is able to crawl to her garden and pick the food she needs to feed her family.
Anyway, things are going great, and I am reminded every day of how blessed i am to be here and have the opportunities to serve the people of uganda. I love you all and I am praying for you.

Paula: I miss you so much!!! I wish i would have seen you before i left, but hopefully i'll see you when i get back. I'll be getting back on the 12th of august. I am living with 15 other people in a very small house. this weekend we will be getting 8 more volunteers, which makes 24 people living in one house!! crazy, but fun. There are only 3 guys out of all of us. Being here has definitely reaffirmed in my mind that i will go into physical therapy. there is no way i can operate on people! The weather here is very humid and hot. I think i've gotten cold once, and theat was very early in the morning. My face is usually orange by the end of the day because of all the dust. Tony and Jimmy sound like they are making you very proud. they are such good kids. I love them! tell them i said that. i love that you and my mom still hang out like little teenagers. everyone needs that feeling in their life. I'm so glad that you're keeping updated with my blog. Things are wonderful here, and I hope it's the same for you and the family. Tell marge i love her and i say hi. love you!!!

Karen: It's so good to hear from you! I hope we get the chance to have another family dinner when i get back and before david leaves on his mission. I'm so excited to hear about my grandparents. I hope everything is well at home. I love you guys!

Africa Adventure: stones, saws, and HIV

Hey Everyone!! (I'm trying to sound American)
So this last week started kind of rough, but i got through it. Apparently i am not invincible. Lets just say i don't think i'll be eating pineapple any time soon. As you can see in the picture, uganda is absolutely gorgeous!! this is a little trail just down the street from me. I went on an outreach to this village called kasubi and on the spot treated about 8 more patients with back problems. Communication is such a huge barrier here. I had an interpreter but they're only useful if the people actually understand them. I was trying to tell this old man to lay on his back, but he kept on getting on all four and doing weird things. haha. then he fell through the sketchy bed they gave me to work with. It was just icing on the cake. After that I helped fill perscriptions while the nurse diagnosed the people. We filled prescriptions for 57 people that day. Two other highlights consisted of a 30 year old man giving me his number, and a little boy peeing on the corner of my backpack. Moving on. So we have new cooks because our old cook was stealing from us. Not two mention she totally manipulated me into giving her three of my shirts. I don't know how that happened. Sometime last week most of the house woke up to kids throwing stones at our roof. We're totally fine, our guard just gets a good scare from time to time. keeps him on his toes. Last friday i was working with the physical therapist in the hospital and we had a little boy with a cast on his arm. it was time to take it off so she of course got out the saw and pliers and got that thing off. I could barely watch. she just kept laughing and saying "you fear ahaha." crazy. of course i fear! She was taking a huge saw and sawing away at his arm like it was a plank of wood. Then I walked in on some guy screaming in the orthopedic room because his arm was chopped at during an assault. Someone chopped his arm all the way to the bone. Kinda scary. They were going to do the surgery later that day, but when we went out to lunch we saw him take off. The nurse said that people fear surgeries and would rather do a ceremony or something. Hopefully he comes to his senses and comes back. Today I went and helped screen people for HIV. I was in charge of giving the results. So i took them in a back room, sat them down asked them about their past sexual histories. Today we tested a husband and wife separately. The wife wanted her husband to get tested because she did not know if he was with other women. we talked with the husband and he was really nervous. he told us he had another wife and the one we had just tested was not aware. my goodness. he wasn't in the right state to hear his results, so we told him to come back on thursday. thank goodness he was negative. i haven't had to deliver a positive result yet, which i am so grateful for. hopefully it stays that way. Anyway, things are picking up and i am really enjoying myself. i miss you all and i hope things are going well in the states!!!